• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Link the brand, rake in the mileage

Ratna Bhushan

Partha Ghosh

NEW DELHI, April 22

HOW does `See you again at the Nestle Milo quiz contest' sound? Or perhaps `Welcome to the Savvy Miss India beauty pageant'? Doesn't quite jell, does it? That's because these events have been associated with certain other brands for years together.

The fact that a Bournvita is so closely associated with school quiz programmes and a Femina with Miss India pageants is the result of years of building synergies with particular events.

The latest trend in corporate India is event management and entertainment on a mega scale, involving huge amounts of investment, and market watchers say that the entertainment industry is set to soar.

According to a recent Arthur Andersen prediction, the live entertainment and event management industry will grow at an annual rate of 60 per cent and gross a whopping Rs. 3,350 crores within the next five years. Given, of course, that corporates take eve n more to actively sponsoring shows and live events.

Rohini Jog, General Manager, Business Development, Kidstuff Promos & Events, says that one of the major reasons corporate eventing is heading for big times is that more and more marketers are feeling the need to create properties around their brands.

``Creating a property could imply consciously building strong synergies with an event or promotion for long-term returns. The idea is to capture a certain event and reiterate it continuously.

``It is key to be noticed among increasing clutter, and companies need to be careful on what they choose. The associations work if they are holistic and mass-based.''

A classic example is the Bournvita Quiz contest. The brand virtually has a patent on school quizzing as an event. Today, it would be difficult for any health food drink to even contemplate school quizzing as a corporate event. ``I can't imagine a Nestle Milo doing a school quiz and getting the same mileage,'' Jog says.

Another such event is the annual Sunsilk Cosmopolitan show. Both brands gain from the event and it is something that can be done year after year without fatigue setting in, according to Jog.

Yet another example is the hugely successful Filmfare awards. Filmfare has managed to establish an overwhelming association with film-based awards, so much so that even the likes of Zee Cine Awards have not been able to capture the same kind of mindspace .

Products such as soft drinks are associated with fun and youth and hence, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are always a step ahead in sponsoring live events of music and entertainment.

Says a Pepsi official, ``Any music programme without a soft drink promo is a waste for either of the companies. Besides, companies such as Pepsi or Coca-Cola can chip in more than most others because of the huge amount of money that is kept aside for bra nd promotion.'' The Arthur Andersen report says that in 1998, Coca-Cola alone sponsored 70 music-related events across the country.

And this does not include the huge sums companies spent on sports events, the estimates for which are not included in the report.

In terms of pure entertainment, corporates view sponsoring events featuring popular artists as a means of reaching their target consumers, according to the report.

Cola giants view events as a novel means of reaching a large select audience, given the response to recently organised product promotion events. Reaping rich benefits from this mindset, several event management companies have sprung up over the past two years.

About a decade ago, the industry was estimated at Rs. 20 crores. Now, it has become a Rs. 250-crore industry and is still growing exponentially, with an increasing number of corporates coming forward to sponsor events and shows.

Further, with more shows being held abroad, the Government could also earn valuable foreign exchange to the tune of Rs. 97 crores ($23 millions) by 2005, the report adds.

But there is a flip side. While avenues are growing, companies have to be choosy. Philips moved out of sponsoring the Top 10 countdown, perhaps because it was too long an affair and executives thought the money could be better spent on something else.

And the mother of all events in India is a cricket match, but Reliance, which showed the way for big-budget adspends on cricket during the Reliance World Cup, does not sponsor the sport any more.